Additional charges have been lodged against the owner of a Chain O’ Lakes boat rental company who was arrested last year after she threw a customer’s phone into the water during a dispute, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Friday.
Kristen Wooden of the Antioch area was arrested Friday after police obtained a warrant charging her with forgery and several counts of theft, police said.
Police said the new charges against her stemmed from investigations that began following her arrest in July 2023 at her business, The Boatyard in Antioch. Wooden was arrested after she allegedly took a cellphone from a rental customer who was using it to record Wooden and threw it into the water, authorities said.
The new charges allege that Wooden forged the name of an inspector on a 2023 state application for her boat rental license. Police also allege that Wooden illegally charged customers extra for rentals, tacking on charges for alleged damage and, in one case, charging customers because they had parked extra cars at her business.
The Fox Waterway Agency suspended Wooden’s commercial watercraft privileges at the end of last summer for violations and non-compliance with agency rules, police said.
